UH medical school named one of America's most beautiful

The University of Hawai`i John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) has landed once again in the list of top U.S. medical schools--most recently for having one of the most beautiful medical school campuses in the United States.

JABSOM was named the third most beautiful medical school in the country by BestMedicalDegrees.com, only surpassed by the medical schools at the University of Vermont and Boston University. JABSOM outranked medical schools at Harvard and Dartmouth, who rounded out the top five.

"The laboratories, faculty and programs at The John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawai`i are certainly worth the consideration of future medical professionals," according to BestMedicalDegrees.com.

JABSOM also has been recognized for its excellence in education and research. The UH medical school has earned a spot as one of the "Best Medical Schools" in the U.S. by US News and World Report for several years running (including 2014), and nearly 80% of the "Best Doctors in Hawai`i" in 2014 (identified by Best Doctors, Inc.) are JABSOM alumni and faculty.

For the ninth year in a row, JABSOM MD students taking the national "United States Medical Licensing Exam, Step 1" have also performed above the national average.

About 90% of JABSOM's medical students are Hawai`i residents. The school also trains another 250 MDs annually who are employed by Hawai`i's major medical centers as they continue to work toward licensure and board certification under the supervision of JABSOM faculty. More than 1,000 of JABSOM's clinical faculty are volunteer teachers. JABSOM also confers degress in Graduate Basic and Biomedical Sciences, Communication Sciences and Disorders (speech pathology and audiology), Medical Technology and Public Health, and operates Hawai`i's only 24-hour hyperbaric treatment chamber.

JABSOM's Kaka`ako complex was completed in 2005, and constructed with $150 million in Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement monies appropriated by the Hawai`i State Legislature.

"Every day we are grateful to the leaders and citizens of Hawai`i for supporting the medical school, and since about half the physicians currently treating patients in Hawai`i were trained at JABSOM, every day their work includes both educating patients about the dangers of tobacco use and treating patients sufferring from smoking-related diseases (including those attributed to second-hand smoke)," said Dr. Jerris Hedges, Dean of JABSOM.